If You Don't Deal With Stress

This is the continuation of a series on allostatic load.  In part 1, there are notes from a video discussion with Dr. Donald Bosch of the Headington Institute on allostatic load.  He does a very good job of explaining what allostatic load and allostasis are.

I really enjoy how he explains allostatic load.

If you have not seen Part 1, go there first.

I have always said that if you don't deal with stress, stress will deal with you.  We all will probably shake our heads and agree, but that's about as far as we take it.  We don't fully understand and comprehend what that means.  We are disconnected from what it means, in many ways.  However, I keep attempting to write about this so others can begin to understand it more.  I realize it is a complex subject that tends to sail right by, but it is important.

I speak from my own experience and that of what I have learned from Dr. Paul Canali of Evolutionary Healing Institute.  He understands this far better than I do , but I have experienced it firsthand in many ways.

Trauma can be simple everyday stuff...

In the video from part 1, Dr. Bosch talks about the set point and how the further we veer out of allostatic load, the further this set point gets moved.  It does not have to be trauma or child abuse or war or other means to cause this set point to shift.  It can be as simple as office work stress, caring for others, or just dealing with life when you were not taught great skills in adapting to stress that comes along.

We all like to think that we've got life by the horns and we are in control.  We all like to think that if we have a beer or a glass of wine that we've relaxed and the stress has all vanished.  We all like to think that if we manage to squeeze in a day off here and there or maybe a few days for a vacation once every couple of years that we're in charge of the stress in our life.  "We're handling it" is what we tell ourselves.

Daily buildup of stress is as harmful...

However, this could not be further from the truth.  The daily build up of stress is just as harmful as if we encountered some traumatic event in our life.  If we don't discharge that, it finds a home in our mind and body.  It moves the set point just a little further away from homeostasis.  Our body ends up staying in that constant state of alertness ready to handle what is bombarding us in life.  We have ended up pushing our allostatic load to the point where it is getting so far into the danger zone that turning back gets more difficult with each passing moment.

It happens before you know it.  It takes place in the blink of an eye.  It is not like you wake up one day and go, wow - I've pushed my set point way too far.  Okay, it can happen that way but more often than not, it goes unnoticed.  It goes undetected until something in our life happens that tries to wake us up.

In the meantime, we maybe experience things like headaches and muscle pains.  Sometimes we find out in a routine doctor visit that our blood pressure is high or our pulse rate stays at a constant high rate instead of dropping down into rest and repair mode.

We may experience fatigue, sleeplessness and nervous stomachs, acid reflux or other conditions.  Chronic health issues may set in and begin to become more pronounced.  We may encounter all kinds of health conditions as issues progress.

In worst case situations, we may go into Conversion Disorder like I did or experience health situations that are life and death.  It varies by person and it depends upon so many factors.  I'm not trying to say that there are not other underlying factors in the exhibition of illness and pain, but I am saying that allostatic load is the cart pushing the horse over the cliff.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 5 part series.  

 Part 3 is "Disconnected From Allostatic Load & Stress"

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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The Forgotten Reason in “13 Reasons Why”

(by Jody, Mental Health Matters)

I certainly am not one to jump on the bandwagon. I generally let it pass by watching the fickle people jumping on and off trying to chase and follow the latest trend, so it is almost to my surprise that I find myself writing about the latest craze of controversy, which happens to be the Netflix series called “13 Reasons Why?”

I am quite sure that you have either watched it or at the very least heard of it, as it has stirred up discussions from the water cooler to the media. I will admit that curiosity got the best of me and I binge watched the entire series just to see what had stirred up such fuss and dialogue.

There are hundreds of blogs and articles with varying opinions both praising and criticizing the show for its approach on the taboo topic of teen suicide and underlying subjects of rape and bullying. Being both passively and actively suicidal my entire life, and having lost people by suicide, has given me the ability to empathize with both the supporters and the critics.

To an extent, as a teenager, I was Hannah Baker as and I am sure thousands of others identify with her depth of pain in one way or another. I have had suicide attempts as a child, a teen and an adult, and the thought process with all of them was different due to what I could fully understand at each age.

As a child, it was impossible for me to comprehend the repercussions of “if you touch Grandma’s pills you will get sick and could die.” I had been to a funeral by age eight and although I had no idea of the permanence of the situation, I did know that dead meant no longer here, and as all the adults at the funeral had said, “at least she’s not suffering anymore”. If you put those two thought processes together at such a young age, you can get the basics of how I came about to my first suicide attempt.

As an adult, the rationale behind my attempt was a lot more clear and concise. I also fully understood the long term consequences of my decision and the affect it would have on certain people. It was not an irrational, spur of the moment thing that I would regret but a precise plan which would achieve the final goal of ending my suffering.

Being a teenager is a completely different ball game all together. With hormones bouncing around like a rubber ball and emotions running rampant, the thought process could vary from minute to minute. I noticed a lot of people commenting on how it was wrong of Hannah to lay the blame for her suicide completely on other people, and although I don’t agree that was the intent, I can see that view as well. I can also tell you that as a suicidal teenager, you do, in part lay the blame on other people, because that is generally what they do at that age anyway. In my eyes at the time, I blamed my molesters, my parents and a few other people that I felt should have somehow known and helped. Maybe it was not right to lay the blame with those who I felt caused my pain and suffering, but a teenage mind is far from fully developed, and often irrational, and right or wrong, that is how I saw things, as did Hannah.

I agree that this show could potentially be triggering for some people, and I am glad that more warnings have been added before each episode. I also know that curiosity often gets the best of human nature and regardless of the fact that we know it may trigger us, we still sat down and watched it. I know for me personally, sometimes it is almost a way of self-testing your strength, or the power you have or don’t have over your triggers. I knew ahead of time certain scenes would get under my skin but I pushed through, testing myself episode after episode, regardless of any trauma it may or may not leave on me. I don’t know if I will ever know if it was my curiosity or the self-destructive part of my illness that was the ultimate driving factor to me watching the show.

There is much controversy over the graphic showing of Hanna’s death and although I admit I did not expect it, it’s closer to reality than some glorified, peaceful death. There is no beauty in suicide. It is not clean and painless. We do not just drift off into sleep and quietly pass away. There is no possible way to glorify the depth of pain that one feels in order to take one’s own life, be it pre-planned or an irrational moment.

Here in Canada, the scene caused enough ruckuses that the school boards felt it necessary to send home warning letters to parents regarding the potentially triggering topics of the show, and actually included information on prevention and communication as well as hotline numbers. There is discussion about how the rape scene and cyber bullying is not properly addressed. There is conversation over the educational systems lack of support, and even questions about whether the tapes and suicide were a cry for attention.

People are enthralled in the discussion via one aspect or another, regardless of the criticism or praise, and that is the one thing that everyone seems to be forgetting. Regardless of how you feel about the show, you are now discussing and reading about topics which you may never have before. People complain that it shouldn’t take a TV series to get subjects like suicide, rape and bullying to the surface, but that is the world we live in. A musical artist dresses one way, and we have a generation of kids with pants beneath their asses. Lady Gaga says she has PTSD, and all of a sudden it is front page news. So, this show did the one thing that is perhaps the most important… it not only started the conversation, but brought it to a whole new level.


- Jody (Jody's Blog)

Read all of Jody's Columnist Posts

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Jody

Guest Blogger
Writer
Survivor, Warrior, Conqueror

Visit Jody's website at

Jodyb2016 Wordpress

  

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly and Jody

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Allostatic Load with Dr Don Bosch

In this video, Dr. Don Bosch talks about Allostatic Load and Allostasis.  He is the Senior Advisor and Director of Risk Environment Psychology at the Headington, Institute.

For more information, visit their website at  www.headington-institute.org

This is part 1 of a 5 part series where we will be discussing Allostatic Load and what I've learned in my own life.  I have gone through work with Dr. Paul Canali called Unified Therapy that has helped me deal with Allostatic Load.

Notes From The Video

• Allostasis is achieving stability in the midst of change.
• Researchers helpful on Allostasis 
• Bruce McEwen - Rockefeller University
• Teresa Seeman - UCLA
•  Allostasis is closely related to Homeostasis
• Homeostasis keeps our body within very narrow limits that allows us to survive.
• Body Temperature Example:  If our body is too hot, we sweat to cool down.  If our body is too cold, blood gets pulled back into our vital organs to keep us functioning.  The set point of our body temperature does not change.  If it varies too much, we are in serious danger.
• Allostasis is similar to homeostasis
• It is our response to some challenge outside or inside ourselves.
• Our response is a way to get us ready to handle the challenge.
• With allostasis we can respond and the set point can change over time.
• When the set point changes, it becomes allostatic load.
• Dangerous for us in the long run.
• Flight or fight response initiated by the amygdala
•  Danger is sensed and the amygdala initiates a major response in the brain and body to prepare for the action.
• Things like blood pressure and heart rate increase to get blood into our muscles to be ready for action.
• Breathing increases to get more oxygen into our cells and body.
• The immune system goes into emergency mode to flood our body with proinflamatory substances which enable us to respond to infection or injury immediately.
• Blood sugar, insulin and cholesterol all go up in the bloodstream to provide us energy to respond
• Enables us to survive the flight or fight and even chronic stress
• Problem is when it does not turn off and we get stuck in this state of allostatic load.
• When we are stuck in allostatic load
• We are not aware of it.
• You may be cold and freezing to death but in allostatic load, you don't necessarily know you are there.
• This is where the risk lies.
•  It is very easy for us to get into allostatic load, no matter what your job is or where you are or what situations you may be experiencing life.
• We need to find a way to turn it off.
• We need to find a way to be aware of it.
• Resiliency is anything that helps us turn allostatic load off
• Things that help us manage allostatic load
• Social Support
• Physical Exercise
• Sense of meaning and purpose
• Allostatic load in the long run is dangerous

Make sure you check out the next part in this 5 part series.  

 Part 2 is "If You Don't Deal With Stress"

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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